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SLOW TRAIN TO SOMEWHERE
3:10 TO YUMA (R) Every time this timeless
American genre is declared deceased, a shiny
new example arrives. This fall boasts at least two
new Westerns: this past week's 3:10 to Yuma and
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert Ford starring Brad Pitt. (We also have
the Coen Brothers' western-tinged adaptation
of No Country for Old Men to look forward to.) A
premier horse opera, 3:10
to Yuma, a remake of the
1957 film starring Glenn
Ford as outlaw Ben Wade
and Van Heflin as rancher
Dan Evans, should ben
efit from being the first
train to enter the sta
tion. With Russell Crowe
as charismatic killer
Wade, and Christian Bale
as the desperate Evans,
director James Mangold's
follow-up to his Country
& Western-tuned Walk the
Line meanders a bit on
its way to the appointed
train, but ultimately ar
rives at a conclusion as
stunning as it is graceful.
When outlaw Ben Wade is caught after his
22nd robbery, a small posse, made up of pious,
gruff Pinkerton Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda),
local rancher Evans, railroad man Grayson
Butterfield (Dallas Roberts, Joshua), vet Doc
Potter (precious comic relief Alan Tudyk,
Serenity), toothy hired muscle Tucker (Canadian
comic Kevin Durand) and Evans' teenage son,
William (Logan Lerman), is tasked with remand
ing Wade to the state prison at Yuma. With
Wade's gang, now led by the volatile Charlie
Prince (Ben Foster, X-Men: The Last Stand), in
hot pursuit, the Evans-led band must survive
until 3:10 when the fateful train leaves. Based
on a short story by famed crime author Elmore
Leonard, 3:10 to Yuma tensely reverses High
Noon. The titular time of day offers safety to
Evans, not a showdown.
That danger comes first,
yet Evans is willing to risk
it due to the direness of
his family's circumstanc
es. Bound to lose his land
to the encroaching rail
road, his youngest son to
tuberculosis, and his wife
(Gretchen Mol) and eldest
son to disappointment,
Evans puts his life on the
line for money and honor,
two things of which the
Proverb-spouting Wade
incongruously knows.
Like most postmodern
Westerns, Mangold's film
struggles with demar
cating heroes and villains with white hats and
black. Suitably, stars Crowe, who again proves
better at playing period than contemporary, and
Bale, in top form, paint the screen with all the
shades of heroism. Even as 3:10 to Yuma fails to
shake the trudging pace inherent in the Western,
its company is first-class and its destination
eloquent-
Drew Wheeler
Christian Bale and Russell Crowe
TRICK AND TREAT
HALLOWEEN (R) Rob Zombie's reimagining (for
lack of a better term) of John Carpenter's slasher
classic makes over the entire concept of a re
make. The first half of Zombie's brutal unmasking
of the psychopath inside the bleached Captain
Kirk visage doesn't so much retell the origins of
the legendary Michael Myers; instead. Zombie
offers up a fleshed-out vision supplementary as
well as complementary to the original. Such an
impressive feat could only
be accomplished by a true
fan, a Factor unaccounted
for when hiring writers and
directors. The obvious clari
ty Zombie (who also helmed
House of 10.000 Corpses
and The Devil's Rejects)
brings to his refashioning
of the face of pure evil can
only be achieved through
multiple viewings and tal
ent. Zombie does not dilute
the terror generated by
Michael Myers by expos
ing the cruel convergence
of nature and nurture—
hackishly called “a perfect
storm* by Myers' doctor,
Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell, who steps
comfortably into Donald Pleasance's orthopedic
shoes)—that turned a 10 year old into a killer.
A dead father, an abusive male presence (William
Forsythe), a hedonistic sister and a caring moth
er (Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon Zombie) too tired
to pro 1 ect her son transformed a strange pale
boy (the creepy yet sympathetic Daeg Faerch)
into a soulless killing machine. Zombie further
human ties this long-inhuman face of evil with
the relationship between Loor.iis and the young
Michael, cut short by 15 years of silent waiting,
that further fills in the blanks left by Carpenter
and cowriter Debra Hill's enigmatic narrative.
Zombie's film is far from flawless, particularly
when the sometime rocker begins recounting
the holiday killing spree, so bloodlessly and
effectively captured by Carpenter and cinema
tographer Dean Cundey's Panaglick. Zombie
unnecessarily complicates
Halloween's simplicity to
the labyrinthine point
of chronological and
geographic confusion.
Myers expert Loomis is
grossly negligent in his
tracking of Myers, who is
magically transported about
Haddonfield on foot faster
than his motorized hunters,
Sheriff Lee Brackett (Brad
Dourif) and the doctor. The
40-year-old writer-director
also fail* to recapture the
original's natural rhythm
of teenage female interac
tion. Scout Taylor Hampton,
Danielle Harris and Kristina
Klebe are no Jamie Lee. Nancy Loomis and P.J.
Soles, whose silly, sexy, pigtailed presence is
sorely tacking from this grim flick. A hectic
climax adds little but confusing, shaky close-
ups that extend the film beyond its expected
finishing point. Nonetheless, Halloween is the
franchise's best effort in nearly 30 years, and a
fitting addition to Zombie's oeuvre.
Drew Wbeeitf
Tyler Mane and Krishna Klebe
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